On Sept. 10, the Bengals will face the Ravens to kick off the 42nd season of Monday Night Football. During that time, Monday Night Football has transcended its status as merely a sporting event and has become a stage for some of the most important cultural events of the past half-century.

John Lennon's Assassination Announced

During the Patriots-Dolphins game on Dec. 8, 1980, Howard Cosell tells viewers that he must inform them of "an unspeakable tragedy" and then proceeds to break the news that the Beatles star has been killed. "Rushed to Roosevelt Hospital," Cosell says. "Dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash."

Terrell Owens/Desperate Housewives

Before the Eagles-Cowboys game on Nov. 15, 2004, ABC airs a controversial skit starring actress Nicollette Sheridan and the NFL's own desperate housewife, T.O. Many people around the league, such as Tony Dungy, say the skit is too racy for network television -- Sheridan starts it draped in a towel and ends without it. Critics, though, argue that the most offensive part of the skit is T.O.'s acting.

Howard Cosell/Alvin Garrett

Cosell calls Garrett, a Redskins receiver, a "little monkey." Cosell always maintains that it is a term of endearment. Most of America seems to believe otherwise. This disconnect is the basis behind the biggest controversy of Cosell's 13-year career announcing Monday Night
Football. Many people speculate that this controversy is what
ultimately leads to Cosell's retirement from MNF the following season.

Dennis Green's Rant

In the Mount Rushmore of memorable lines from press conferences, there's Allen Iverson's "practice," Herm Edwards' "you play to win the game" and Jim Mora's "playoffs?" And then there's Dennis Green's meltdown after his Cardinals blow a 20-point second-half lead and lose to Chicago. The Bears finish 13-3 and represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, but always remember that things might be different: "They are who we thought they were! And we let 'em off the hook!" The rant is later referenced in a TV commercial for Coors.

Saints Return After Katrina

Few sports teams mean more to their city than the Saints do to New Orleans. A year after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans'
rebuilding process is still in progress. The city finds solace, if only for an instant, during the Saints' rout of their division rival Falcons 23-3 in front of more than 70,000 fans in the Superdome.

LT breaks Theismann's leg

In perhaps the most gruesome in-game hit ever recorded, Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor sacks Joe Theismann, breaking the leg of the Redskins quarterback and ending his career. This video is not for those with a weak stomach. In fact, Taylor himself refuses to watch the hit to this day. It is a play that becomes well known beyond the scope of football.

Darryl Stingley Returns To Foxboro

In a 1978 preseason game against Oakland, Patriots receiver Darryl
Stingley goes up for a catch and is hit in the head by Raiders safety Jack
Tatum. Stingly is paralyzed from the neck down. On Sept. 3, 1979, Stingley returns to Schaffer Stadium in a wheelchair and receives a lengthy standing ovation from players, coaches and fans before the Patriots face the Steelers. "This is a moment to remember," Cosell says on the air. "As one ... looks at these people, one realizes what an athlete can come to mean to a population."

Terrell Owens And His Sharpie

In the godfather of all elaborate touchdown celebrations, T.O. scores against the Seahawks on Oct. 14, 2002, and takes a Sharpie out of his sock, signs the football and then gives it to a fan. Owens is enjoying
one of the greatest seasons of his career, scoring 13 TDs, grabbing 100 receptions and racking up 1,300 yards, (while shooting just 56 death stares at his QB for not throwing him the ball).

Howard Cosell Overindugles

There is a time and place to get wasted on national television. The time is Thursday nights at the place is the Jersey Shore. But in 1970, Cosell drinks so much on a Monday night in Philadelphia that he throws up on Don Meredith's cowboy boots in the booth. Cosell leaves the Eagles-Giants game early, later saying a "virulent virus” is what caused his slurred speech, and not the alleged martinis sent over by Eagles owner Leonard Tose.

The First Game

The tradition of Monday Night Football begins on Sept. 21, 1970, with
a game between Joe Namath's New York Jets and Leroy Kelly's Cleveland Browns. The Jets are more than a year removed from Joe Willies's famous guarantee of victory in Super Bowl III, but the Browns get the last laugh, defeating New York 31-21. Play-by-play man Keith Jackson shares the booth with Cosell and Meredith.

ThePostGame brings you the most interesting sports stories on the web.

A new football season is upon us and a new spread of football apps reinforces one essential truth about the NFL: It loves distracting fans from live games.

Football is the most exciting sport on the planet when something's happening. For every deep pass, big run, open-field hit and sack, though, there's an interminable amount of time spent lining up, setting formations, resetting after plays, taking timeouts and running to the outside for no gain. There are breaks between quarters, breaks for timeouts, breaks for TV timeouts, breaks for injuries, breaks for instant replay, breaks for challenges and a big break at the half.

The single most impressive feat the NFL accomplishes during the season is convincing fans that the brief bursts of action sandwiched between big piles of nothing is the game. Television makes that all too easy by couching games in analysis, commentary, quick cuts to the action in other games, recaps of other NFL games at the half and a flood of stats and graphics to keep eyes drawn from long walks from the huddle and quarterbacks ticking away the play clock seconds under center. The NFL even has a Red Zone channel that cuts out the tedium and shows only scoring drives. DirecTV takes it a step further with its Short Cuts channel that condenses all the action into a pre-chewed, 30-minute showing.

None of this helps when fans are freezing in the stands during late-season games waiting for the network to cut away from a Chevy commercial and let the game resume. For these Sunday die-hards and for their friends at home who can't suffer even a modest lull in the on-field activity, we offer seven vital apps, starting with:

NFL Sunday Ticket

Good news for DirecTV customers: The cost of its NFL Sunday Ticket package that features every NFL game every Sunday in HD, a player stat tracker and up to eight games at once on the Mix channel dropped to $200. Bad news? If you want the Red Zone channel, Short Cuts channel or access through your computer or mobile devices, it'll cost you $100 more. That's a lot for your money, and no other app comes close to offering those features. It's also somewhat disappointing, since all those premium features were included in the base package last year.

SlingPlayer Mobile

Want games on your device but don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars for the Sunday Ticket? If you're willing to connect a SlingBox to your cable, satellite or DVR, this app will let you watch live games you're already paying for just like you would at home. You can even watch and control games you've recorded if you don't feel like wasting data on commercials. Users can change channels, schedule game recordings and pause or skip through those games, all from their mobile devices. The best part? Unlike paid football apps that lose their usefulness once the season ends, you only have to pay for this once.

NFL '12

The NFL cuts out the middle man by delivering live stats, scores and news through its app and tailoring it to a user's team. Yes, you can get all of that just about anywhere else, which is why the NFL also uses its app as a gateway for premium services such as video highlights ($10 a season or $2 a week) and its NFL Audio Pass that provides radio access to all games all season long for $30. It's not quite as impressive as the video streams of live games that the league offers to non-U.S. fans through its NFL Game Pass app, but it's a start.

NFL Mobile

You could pay for all the NFL '12 video highlights. If you're a Verizon Wireless customer, though, that would just be really unwise. Verizon subscribers get free access to this app's game highlights, live game updates, stats, standings and Facebook and Twitter updates from teams.

ESPN ScoreCenter

Why limit your obsession to football? This app provides personalized scoreboards, live game video updates, in-game stats, box scores, game summaries and standings for not only NFL games, but baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, boxing, mixed martial arts, racing and other sports. The app puts scores and updates for your favorite teams on one screen while providing ESPN news, analysis and video clips for those games and others. Set alerts for one game or set them for the season: Even when you have to miss games for pesky distractions like weddings and holidays, ScoreCenter has you covered.

Fantasy Monster Pro

Go ahead, waste a whole lot of time and effort downloading and using NFL.com, Yahoo and ESPN fantasy football apps. It's cheap, if cumbersome and terribly inefficient. If you're serious about your multiple fantasy football teams, though, and can ill afford to forget if you benched Drew Brees in your Yahoo league but kept him in your NFL.com lineup, this is the only app you'll ever need. Fantasy Monster lets users do quick drag-and-drop edits and updates to all of your fantasy league teams in any sport, just in case your baseball team is still in the running and you're wondering if CC Sabathia will make his next start. The app also allows you to post to your league's message board and add, drop or trade players just as you would on your league's home page. Fantasy Monster Pro is definitely one of the costlier fantasy sports apps out there, but unless you're in a CBSSports league, there's no substitute.

Super Shock Football HD

It's tough to explain electric football to folks who've been playing football video games their whole lives. Just the thought of putting a bunch of figurines on a buzzing box and playing "football" makes it sound like previous generations were the most easily entertained bunch of simps in history. But there was strategy to it. There were formations and plays ... there was physics! Somehow the developers at Chillingo managed to capture both the genius and absolute absurdity of electric football perfectly in Super Shock Football HD, which converts the cheap cardboard buzzbox gridiron into a colorful 3-D stadium with lush HD graphics.

MORE FROM THE WEB

Last year we dug up 12 hilarious old baseball cards that made us laugh for a variety of reasons: ridiculously named players, subtle vulgarity hidden in the photos, astonishingly ugly dudes. And since there are no shortage of baseball cards to choose from, we decided to come up with another batch this year.

We found more silly names and ugly dudes, but this time around we also uncovered sombreros, Zack-Morris cell phones, and a joke that was funny to everyone except fans of the Chicago Bulls.

MORE FROM THE WEB

The last time an NFL team relocated, Bill Clinton was just starting his second term in the Oval Office and the two biggest songs of the year were memorials for Princess Diana and Notorious B.I.G. Get ready for an update.

An estimated 73 million Americans attend a major league baseball game every season. Indeed, for many of us, it just wouldn't be summer without spending at least one afternoon in the stadium stands -- foam finger, foamy beer, and stadium hot dog in hand (though hopefully not all three at the same time).

But with big-league games come big-league costs -- especially where food and drink are concerned.

The average ticket for a 2012 major league bout will run you $26.98, according to a study from Team Marketing Research, and compared to the typical ticket prices for other professional sporting events, that's a bargain.

Pairing that cheap baseball ticket with nine innings worth of nosh, however, can slam that reasonable expense right over the fence. Major league teams have, in recent years, introduced a bevy of tempting specialty items with sky-high prices. Fenway Park, for instance, sells a $15 prime rib sandwich, while vendors at the Marlins' Sun Life Stadium want you to spend the same amount on a plate of nachos -- served inside a baseball helmet.

Even keeping it simple can get pricey: An average stadium hot dog will this summer cost $4.13, and a 16-ounce beer with run you $6.10, again according to Team Marketing Research. And let's be honest. How many of us are going to eat, or drink, just one?

Fortunately for thrifty baseball fans, it doesn't take much effort to scarf snacks and save cash while reveling in a major league ball game. Check out the following 15 tips for ideas on eating on-the-cheap this baseball season.

U.S. Cellular Field: Insane Nachos

Chicago's Wrigley Field might be a more esteemed ballpark, but the White Sox' Cellular Field is well-known for its superior dining options, including a nacho dish that's notorious for its enormity, and its value.

Soggy chips and Cheese Whiz? Hardly. For $11.50, fans at Cellular Field can nosh on "Nachos in a baseball helmet" instead. The gargantuan dish is loaded with beans, meat, veggies, sour cream, and guacamole -- surely enough to get any fan through all nine innings -- and comes with another added bonus: A souvenir baseball helmet.

Brown-Bag It

It's a stadium secret that plenty of ballgoers don't know: The majority of major league teams will let you bring nearly any food, whether homemade or restaurant takeout, into a game.

Policies vary from stadium to stadium, but most allow food that's carried in a soft bag or cooler, along with water toted in clear, sealed plastic bottles. But take note, because there are some standard no-no's to the BYOF rules: Security won't allow anything hard -- like aluminum cans, glass bottles, or firm-sided containers -- that might break or be thrown at players (or other fans) by rabblerousing game-goers.

Progressive Field: Tweet for Cheap Eats

This season, the Cleveland Indians are sending their social media outreach into overdrive. And for fans who get involved online, the move means major food savings.

The team has an exclusive "Social Suite" -- complete with waiters to cater to your every culinary whim (in other words, no waiting in line). Around a dozen fans will be selected for gratis suite access each game, with entry selections based on one's involvement in Indians-oriented social media. The food isn't free, but comped tickets and table service more than make up for that $6 hot dog.

Nationals Park: Discount Nights for Low-Cost Nosh

The Washington Nationals boast some of the best discount nights among major league teams nationwide. And many of them, to the delight of D.C food fanatics, are oriented around cheap grub.

This season, fans can enjoy regular Beltway Burger nights, which include a burger, fries, and soda with a ticket purchase. Family fun days include a hot dog, chips, and soda with each ticket, and Miller Lite Party Nights mean two free beers included in every $25 ticket.

MLB.com App

Major League Baseball's "At the Ballpark" app, introduced this year and available free on iPhones, offers plenty of perks, including interactive stadium maps and team records.

Most importantly, the app allows game attendees at five stadiums (including Citi Field and Citizens Bank Park) to order their food remotely, and have it delivered to their seats. Not to mention scrumptious savings: The app offers a rundown of discounts for any given game night, exclusive food coupons, and a listing of available foods and their prices -- making it easier to find the vendor shilling the cheapest pretzels in the stadium.

AT&T Park: Foodie-Friendly Theme Nights

The San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park has one of the most impressive rosters of theme nights across the league, and most of them boast major appeal for wallet-watching food lovers.

Nearly every theme night includes cheap or free food -- and game admission -- in the ticket price. A few of the best: The Garlic Fest will include discounted portions of the stadium's famous Gilroy Garlic Fries; Brewfest offers fans three hours of beer tastings, along with a free commemorative mug; and Off the Cove Night lets you sample the delicious offerings of myriad San Fran food trucks.

Angel Stadium: First for Frugality

rugal baseball fans in California, take heart: Last year, ESPN ranked Angel Stadium third overall for ticket affordability, and first for inexpensive concessions.

It might have a little something to do with the beer. When new owner Arte Moreno took over, he slashed the price of draft beer, which will this season run $4.50 per pint. And this year, there's yet another bonus for brew fans: The stadium has now introduced a host of specialty craft beers as well.

For the complete slideshow of Cheapest Ways To Eat At MLB Stadiums ...

MORE FROM THE WEB

The Olympic cauldron is extinguished and the Olympic flag has passed from London to Rio de Janeiro.

For the athletes of the 2012 London Olympic games, the results are in the history books, and for a few of the most amazing athletes, the record books. Now for many of these world class athletes, it's time to temporarily switch their attention away from athletic competition to the corporate boardroom.

So which Olympians left their mark on the 2012 games and are the biggest names in business? What names will sports marketers and sponsors be looking to sign?

Here’s a look at 10 Olympic athletes you can expect to cash in between now and the start of the next summer Olympics. (Note: To be eligible for consideration, athletes cannot complete in a professional sports league -- so LeBron James, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Misty May Treanor are out.)

5. Jessica Ennis, Heptathlete

The pressure to perform in the Olympics can be tough for any athlete, but imagine being the athletic face of the nation hosting the Games. Such was the pressure facing Jessica Ennis, who had a sponsor, British Airways, go so far as to paint her image on a field near Heathrow Airport with the words "Welcome to Our Turf."
Ennis lived up to the hype, winning gold in the heptathlon, as part of "Super Saturday." In addition to BA, Ennis also has deals with Jaguar, Coca-Cola-owned Powerade, Aviva and Olay, but she is likely to reach a new level after London. Some British sports marketing experts predict Ennis could earn $3 million a year in the lead-up to Rio.

4. Usain Bolt, Sprinter

When the conversation focuses on where an athlete falls on the Olympic "legend" scale, there will be no shortage of companies looking to attach themselves to Jamaica's Usain Bolt. As the world's fastest man heading into the London, Bolt was already one of the Olympics' brightest and most marketable stars, and by some estimates he earned more than $20 million in the year leading up to the London Games.

Bolt's primary sponsor is German sportswear company Puma, which pays him $9 million a year. He also has deals with Gatorade, Swiss watchmaker Hublot, Virgin Media, Visa and Nissan Motor, among others. Another four years as the world’s fastest man, Bolt will remain a hot commodity even if he opts not to participate in Rio de Janeiro.

3. Gabby Douglas, Gymnast

Gabby Douglas epitomizes how a medal-winning performance in the Olympics can turn an athlete from an unknown to international star in just minutes. The gymnast wasn't even on the U.S. Olympic team until March, a time when most Olympic sponsors have already signed their athletes.
Douglas did get a couple of quick deals with Procter & Gamble and Kellogg before London, but her sponsorship slate remains wide open. Don't expect it to remain that way for long.
With a smile as bright as the gold medal she earned in all-around gymnastics, Douglas is not only a hot commodity but an available one in the wake of the London games.

2. Missy Franklin, Swimmer

If Phelps leaves the swimming pool behind, there's another swimmer ready to take that spotlight. Seventeen-year-old Missy Franklin is poised to be the new face of USA Swimming.
Franklin established herself as a swimming star in London, with four gold medals, including a world record in the 200-meter backstroke. She is entering her senior year in high school and says she plans to compete with her high school team before heading to college and the NCAA.
Remaining an amateur means Franklin is leaving anywhere from $1 million to $2 million on the table right now, but you can bet sponsors will be knocking on her door before the 2016 Games. As a swimmer, Franklin has a long Olympic career in front of her, and sponsors will need to pay a premium when the time comes for her to give up amateur status.

1. Michael Phelps, Swimmer

The king stays at the top. London 2012 cemented Phelps' legacy as one of the all-time global sports icons. Phelps leaves London with staggering career numbers -- a record 22 metals, 18 of them gold.
The swimmer says he's hanging it up and won't compete in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Many of his endorsement deals with the likes of Speedo, Visa, Omega and Nike run through 2016. So even if he's not in the pool, the most-decorated Olympian of all time will remain a top marketing force the next four years.

MORE FROM THE WEB

While Yao Ming will always be remembered for his on-court accolades with the Houston Rockets, his career as a humanitarian may one day be just as notable, if not more so.

During the past few years, Yao has played in and hosted numerous charity basketball games, donated millions to an earthquake relief fund and led a crusade against the consumption of shark fin soup in China.

Recently, Yao took on another challenge. The 31-year-old, who has worked with the wildlife conservation group WildAid before, went with them on a fact-finding trip to Africa in which Yao documented the continent’s growing poaching crisis.

Yao's Conservationist Visit To Africa

Yao's Conservationist Visit To Africa

Yao stops for a photo with the Kenya Police Reservists. "Rhino patrolling is no joke," Yao writes, "it involves walking for hours on end, several times a day, until every last rhino is spotted at least once every three days."

Making Memories

As the 2012 Olympic Games come to a close, the 70,000 Games Makers (volunteers) and the general UK population deserve a gold medal for their continuous pleasant attitude and enthusiasm. Once again, it is the locals who leave the lasting impression.

MORE FROM THE WEB

The London Olympics are in the books, and we can spend the next four years gearing up for the party in Rio de Janeiro. But before peeking too far ahead, the Associated Press took a look back at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. There's always talk about the legacy of an Olympics, and what the AP found in Greece wasn't all that inspiring.

It reported that "eight years after the Athens Games, many of the venues remain abandoned or rarely used, focusing public anger on past governments as the country struggles through a fifth year of recession and a debt crisis that has seen a surge in poverty and unemployment."